Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — Emerald Springs, the future city designed by St. Vincent de Paul students, won five out of 15 awards, as well as two honorable mentions, at the 2008 National Engineers Week competition held Jan. 19 at COSI Columbus.

The city planners — Amber Cox, Bryan Downs and Dresden Peppers, along with alternate team member Treva Bodine — were assisted in their efforts by Rolls-Royce senior facility engineer Joe Tapocsi. The team first created a city on a computer model, then built a to-scale tabletop model of a portion of their ideal city. They also had to write a city abstract describing the city and its services and an essay on using engineering to solve an important social need. This year’s theme asked students to describe how they would use nanotechnology in their city.

Before going to Columbus, the team presented the Emerald Springs model and concepts to the St. Vincent student body, and discussed its merits. Cox, president of the city’s chamber of commerce, talked about the recreational opportunities available in the city, built among the volcanoes of Iceland. In addition to the usual sports venues, Emerald Springs featured rooftop recreational facilities, and hot springs that could be used all year long.

City engineer Downs talked about the challenges of building a city in an area with active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes, which meant the team had to develop a rapid evacuation system to keep the city dwellers safe. He also described the many options for transportation, the geothermal and other “green” energy sources and the 100 percent waste recycling program.

Peppers, Emerald Springs’ mayor, said residents of the city all have nanobots in their blood stream to maintain their health. She said the virtual absence of industrial and residential pollution and all organic foods also help keep the residents hale and hearty. Nanotechnology is also used to monitor the city’s infrastructure.

At the regional competition, the team won the Best Moving Part award for its turning bridge and podway transport system. The use of geothermal, wind, hydroelectric and tidal power earned the team the Best Use of Energy award, and it also won the Best Use of Recycled Materials and Most Economic Project awards. The St. Vincent students also won Most Honorable Mentions for recreation and ceramics.

To win the Best Use of Transportation honors, Emerald Springs designers combined mass transit systems such as high-speed sky buses and a podway system with individual vehicles which drive themselves on voice commands from the occupant. They also devised an intersection control system that virtually eliminated the possibility of car crashes at crossroads.

The city designers said it was a lot of fun working on the future city project, dreaming up new ideas and figuring out if they would really work, now or in the near future. They visited Mount Vernon’s wastewater treatment plant, and learned about different aspects of engineering and what was possible and what was not. The team members said they also gained a greater understanding of how math, science and engineering impact each aspect of individual lives.